It is the beginning, it is the ending, it is Citizen Kane. Rosebud represents a lot more than Charles Fosters missing childhood. It represents the long bloated, long inadequate, long, long life of Charles Foster Kane, arguably the greatest character in film history. If the word has any meaning at all it is that words have no universal meaning. They are sole to the beholder. They are nothing without the person who is speaking them. It is a very hematic message. http://youtu.be/HyJAytr1ebc